


I Want to Say I'm in Love

by j_majka, lesslinette



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Post Reveal, Reveal, two sad people in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27252817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_majka/pseuds/j_majka, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesslinette/pseuds/lesslinette
Summary: After an unexpected reveal, Adrien and Marinette struggle to find the words to fix their partnership and their hearts.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 36
Kudos: 260





	I Want to Say I'm in Love

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fun collab that I did with my dear friend Lesslinette as a way to appreciate Adrinette. I had a lot of fun writing this and I am absolutely in love with the art Less made. I hope you enjoy!

No, no, no, no, no.

Marinette squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that she could turn back time like Viperion or Bunnyx. Maybe then she could forget that her partner was also her stunningly gorgeous classmate, Adrien Agreste.

_Nope!_

She wasn’t going to think about it. If she didn’t think about it, then it would go away, right?

“My lad-Marinette?” She could hear the soft crack in Adrien’s perfect, angelic voice as he corrected himself.

Marinette cracked her eyes open a bit. She could see the lucious blonde locks of her long time crush—partner— _NOPE! SHE COULDN’T DO THIS!_

She quickly shut her eyelids, wishing that she was just in a nightmare. Maybe Sandboy was back. Yeah! Yeah, this was just a horribly realistic nightmare.

A hand gently touched her shoulder and Marinette flinched back, not expecting the sparks of electricity that ran down her arm.

“M-Marinette, pl-lease open your eyes,” Adrien begged, voice cracking. “Ever-everything’s okay, Bugaboo-”

“But it’s not okay!” Marinette burst, opening her eyes and accidentally pushing Adrien away.

Adrien backed up to the other end of the wall, a hurt expression on his face. He hugged his left hand to his chest. A small black Kwami, Plagg, if she remembered correctly, floated up next to Adrien with a worried look on his face.

“Marinette?” Tikki asked, floating up in front of Marinette’s face. She could feel the concern coming off her kwami in small waves.

Marinette lifted up her palms to cup Tikki in her hands. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just really hard to process all...” she tried to gesture widely, but struggled with Tikki in her hands, “this.”

As if she was an iceberg melting in the ocean, she watched as Adrien’s eyes gave away disappointment, cracking her heart in two. All the worries she had of revealing herself to Chat were crashing down on her and she was afraid of sinking under all the negative thoughts that she kept locked up all of these years.

“Marinette? Marinette! Marinette, breathe!”

_Oh goodness was she hyperventilating!?_

Adrien moved to help guide her, but he stopped short, probably not wanting to associate with the mess that was Marinette. Maybe it was for the best that Adrien knew her identity, knew that he was always working with a walking trainwreck who couldn’t even keep her emotions in check.

She hadn’t realized she was crying until she felt Tikki’s small paws on her cheek wiping the stray tears.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. Things could’ve gone way worse My La—Marinette. I mean the akuma could’ve seen us or even…”

Marinette zoned out, paying attention to the fact that Chat—no, Adrien—corrected himself to call her Marinette. Not Bugaboo. Not Buginette. Not My Lady. Just Marinette.

Gosh, she wished that didn’t hurt her as much as it did. But she couldn’t deny the multiple cracks forming in her already broken heart.

“Our heroes were last seen fleeing down this road. Maybe I can catch up with them and get some of you guys' biggest questions answered!” Alya’s voice came from the road. Marinette wasn’t really sure how far away Alya was, but the last thing she needed today was for her best friend and her entire blog finding out she was Ladybug.

She needed out of this alley and fast.

Marinette barely registered that Adrien was still talking as she took off, running towards the opposite end of the alley. Thankfully, it opened up to the neighboring street, which was empty.

Dashing to the nearest metro station, Marinette didn’t rest until she was safely on the next train to her house, not letting the thoughts of black cats or blonde models enter her mind.

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

Adrien couldn’t get Marinette or Ladybug out of his head the entire night.

His thoughts constantly flickered between how amazing she was and all the signs that pointed to Ladybug being his amazing classmate.

He couldn’t believe that he was right back when Kwami Buster attacked.

Though, he was still a little confused about how she was both Multimouse and Ladybug at the same time. But that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that his lady hid her identity flawlessly and he was none the wiser. Well, she wasn’t his lady, if her reaction to his identity was anything to go by.

Adrien sighed from his position at the top of the school steps. That was also how his night went. Whenever he thought about his lady’s amazing feats, he remembered how disappointed and upset she was at finding out that he was Chat Noir.

Adrien couldn’t really blame her after all, he wasn’t exactly her friend despite his many attempts to change that. As far as he knew, she probably thought he was this weird dude who struggled to be kind. Every time he was around Marinette, he somehow messed it up and made her upset.

Before he could spiral further, Nino approached him on the steps.

“Hey, dude!” Nino greeted, holding up his fist for Adrien.

“Hey,” Adrien responded absently, lightly fist-bumping Nino. His eyes glanced over to the bakery across the street.

He hoped to catch Marinette before class, or at least whenever she showed up. He didn’t care if he was late, he wanted—no, needed—to talk to her. He hoped that the sooner they addressed the elephant in the room then the sooner they could get to some semblance of normal. He wanted nothing more to know that his la-Ladybug still trusted him.

“You good, dude? You look a little distracted.”

Adrien pulled his eyes away from the Dupain-Cheng bakery to look back towards Nino, who had a concerned look on his face.

“Uh, yeah, just wanted to try and talk to Marinette about something is all.”

“Well, you’re gonna be waiting a while, sunshine,” Alya said, walking up the steps towards Nino and Adrien.

“What! Why?” A million thoughts ran through his head, concern for Marinette filling his mind.

_What if Hawkmoth had seen them detransform and took out Marinette as a civilian? Or maybe there was an akuma that kidnapped her? Oh gosh, what if she needed Chat and he wasn’t there for her?_

Adrien was a second away from running behind the school building and transforming when Alya said, “Official word is that she’s sick, but really she’s taking a mental health day. Something about getting super stressed and needed a day to rest and recover.”

Alya shrugged. “I was gonna go over later and drop off her school work for the day, help her decompress. But if you want to, Adrien, I’m sure Marinette wouldn’t mind!”

Alya had this strange knowing sort of look on her face that Adrien just couldn’t place. Did she know he was Chat Noir and Marinette was Ladybug?

No. She couldn’t. Marinette would never share such information. No matter how much their reveal might’ve upset her, she wouldn’t immediately give away her identity. Perhaps Alya just knew how much he wanted to be Marinette’s friend.

He thought about Alya’s offer. It would definitely be a good excuse for him to get to talk to Marinette without anyone becoming suspicious. But what if Marinette decided to stay home because of him?

Popping up at her house would be the worst possible thing he could do. He didn’t want to strain their already tense relationship even further. He wished with all his being that they could go back to the way they were before, at least for Marinette’s sake. Even if it wasn’t the best for him, she would be happy with the guy she liked, not worrying about her partner’s identity.

“Uh, actually, it’s not that important. I can just, uh, talk to her tomorrow I guess.” Adrien glanced at his watch, not really reading the time. He was too distracted by thoughts of Marinette, his lady, his princess, what he hoped to be to her. “I should probably get inside. Don’t want to be late right? Heh.”

Adrien rushed into the school, making a beeline towards the men’s restroom. Thankfully, no one else was in there to bear witness to what he was about to do.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

All he could feel after letting out his scream was Plagg’s paw gently reassuring him and his cool tears trickling down his face.

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

Marinette sighed, staring at her framed picture of Adrien. She had a non-framed one of Chat Noir lying next to her on the bed.

She placed the Adrien photo on her bed and then stared at the Chat Noir picture.

Marinette wasn’t completely sure what she was looking for in the pictures. Maybe a logical reason why they were the same person?

All she really got from staring at these two photos the past couple of days was that they were both handsome blonde-haired green-eyed boys. Nothing concretely concluding that they were in fact the same boy.

_Why was it that she couldn’t just accept the fact that the two blonde boys in her life were the same?_

Maybe it had to do with the fact that her crush was actually in love with the other side of her. The side that constantly rejected him for...well, him. Her mind constantly tried to make sense of it all, but all she really got from it was that they had somehow made this weird square where one of them was in love with the other and ignored the other side.

Thinking about it now just gave her a headache.

The one thing she really understood was that Chat Noir had fallen in love with her as Ladybug. Not regular ole Marinette. Ladybug, the amazing superheroine of Paris. The person who was every kid’s role model.

And as far as she knew, he had moved on. She had been confused back when Adrien started dating Kagami and Chat stopped calling her ‘my lady’, but now it all made sense. He decided that since she wasn’t going to give him a chance he might as well move on.

She helped Kagami in more ways than she realized. Crazy that’s how life works out.

Marinette choked back a sob, dropping the picture of Chat onto her bed. She turned away from the photos of the two boys. It hurt too much to just stare at them. All the feelings that would never be returned constantly bubbled under the surface as she stared at those gorgeous green eyes, with or without a mask.

She felt the soft caress of a tissue dabbing at her eyelids. Looking up, Marinette saw Tikki with a sympathetic look on her face as she wiped away the tears that had formed around Marinette’s eyes.

Marinette hadn’t even realized she’d begun to cry. Who knew losing the person you fell in love with twice hurt so much?

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

Two days, 16 hours, 6 minutes, and 42 seconds since Adrien had last seen Marinette.

He was really starting to get concerned for her. It wasn’t like Marinette to miss so many days of class, even if she was excelling in all of them. Marinette loved coming into school, hanging out with her friends, helping those in need, and just being an amazing person all around.

But she wasn’t majorly sick. At least that’s what Alya said every time he asked. Alya also said that if he wanted to confirm for himself that he could just call Marinette, but Adrien knew both of them weren’t ready for that. Despite what Alya said about Marinette just taking a few days off to destress, Adrien knew he was her stressor. It physically pained him to think that he was the reason behind her pain, but what other explanation was there?

The only thing that had happened over the past few days was the reveal. Ladybug hadn’t even shown up to patrol last night. He hoped that she had just forgotten, but he knew better. Ladybug, in turn, Marinette, was avoiding him.

Adrien sighed, absently doodling on a sheet of notebook paper. He was trying to doodle to forget everything with Marinette, but he found he was drawing sloppily drawn Ladybugs.

_Marinette could probably draw them so much better. She’s such an amazing artist._

Adrien glanced at the seat behind him where Marinette usually sat. He was a little surprised to see Nino sitting there, but soon remembered that Nino had asked if it was okay for him to keep Alya company. At least while Marinette was out of class.

Adrien hadn’t really minded because it meant that Nino wasn’t able to see how Marinette’s absence was starting to affect Adrien.

He glanced back at the door, wishing, practically begging, for Marinette to walk through the classroom doors. He knew it was a futile hope considering her parents were the understanding type and would let her stay home as long as she needed.

Yet he couldn’t help but imagine her standing in the doorway. Her silky dark locks of hair flowing freely. A nervous yet hopeful look on her face, while she wore her classic white shirt and pink jeans outfit. As if it were any other day she was walking into class.

A perfect beauty.

If only she was actually there. So he could tell her how much she meant to him.

Just staring at the Marinette his mind conjured up was enough for now.

Daydream Marinette (Daydreaminette) walked closer to his desk, hesitating with each step, as if she was dreading it.

That was weird for a daydream. Maybe it was just his subconscious saying that he was nervous to see Marinette again. It would definitely explain the weirdness of Daydreaminette.

“Uhh...can I sit Adrien here?”

The soft melody of Daydreaminette’s voice was almost like the real Marinette’s angelic voice. He barely recognized her misspeak.

“Oh, Marinette, you’re back! I can move…”

Adrien didn’t hear the rest of what Nino said as he realized with trepidation that Daydreaminette was not a daydream but the real life Marinette.

Worse still, he realized he hadn’t stopped staring at her ever since she stepped into the doorway of the classroom.

_Kill me now_.

It took all his willpower not to bang his head against the desk. He didn’t want Marinette to think that he didn’t want to see her, especially after not seeing her for two days.

“Uh, it’s alright, Nino. I-I can take your spot in the front,” Marinette said. He picked up on her scared, almost frantic looks back towards Alya.

The hopeful part of Adrien dimmed a bit. He couldn’t just pretend that everything was normal. Normal was when no one but Plagg knew his identity.

Now? He had no clue what their normal was.

“Good morning, class!” Madame Bustier greeted, setting down her books.

Adrien attempted to wrench his mind away from thoughts of Marinette, which was difficult considering she was sitting next to him. This was going to be a hard day.

“Today, we are going to be drawing out the scene from _The Great Gatsby_ where Nick is looking out the harbor.”

Madame Bustier grabbed a stack of papers from her desk and looked around for something, a confused look on her face.

“Oh, it seems I’ve forgotten to grab the art supplies for today’s exercise.” Madame Bustier clapped her hands together and quickly glanced around the classroom. “Marinette, Adrien, would you two mind going to the art room and grabbing some art supplies? We just need some colored pencils and markers for everyone.”

Glancing at Marinette, Adrien could tell that was probably the last thing she wanted to do. Yet Marinette moved to leave the classroom, so Adrien followed suit.

The trip to the art classroom was silent. Adrien could hear the faint sounds of other classes starting their daily activities, blissfully unaware of the couple walking down the hallway.

Couple really wasn’t the right word. Two individuals walking together was more fitting, considering he couldn’t even look at Marinette.

The art room was dark and empty when they arrived.

Adrien looked around confused. Why wasn’t the art teacher, Mr. Peindre, in the classroom? And where were his students?

“Where is everyone?” He voiced.

Mentally, he chided himself for that being the first thing he said to Marinette in over two days. Could he be any more insensitive?

“Mr. Peindre doesn’t normally come in the morning, since he doesn’t have class until closer to lunch,” Marinette explained. She still wasn’t looking at him, instead choosing to rummage through the art supplies. “I’m not really sure where the markers and stuff are. Everything gets moved around a lot, which makes things like this a bit of a pain.“

“Marinette...we should talk about things…” Adrien trailed off unsure of how he should continue. How does one approach the topic of knowing your superhero partner’s identity?

Just be like, ‘Hey, you’re this girl I now realize I love with all my heart because you’re also my amazing classmate!’

Yeah, no.

“Uh, why don’t you go check out those bins over there?” Marinette randomly pointed at some boxes on the opposite end of the room.

Ah, so she was ignoring everything.

Adrien walked over to the boxes Marinette had pointed out, ignoring the sting of Marinette’s deflection.

Taking off the lid of one of the boxes, Adrien found a small collection of spray paint cans. Upon closer inspection, he realized that all the cans were empty.

He continued sifting through the boxes, but all he found were more empty spray cans. There was one bin with a few that weren’t completely empty, but he could tell they were on their last legs.

Adrien turned around to inform Marinette of what he found (he wasn’t really sure why he felt the need to tell her, but he was going to trust his gut), only to find her teetering on a chair reaching for some bins on top of one of the cabinets.

He rushed over just in time to catch Marinette before she hit the ground. Thankfully, the bin she had been reaching for stayed in its place on top of the cabinet, so he didn’t have to worry about that crashing down on them. Of course, he would be more than willing to take the hit for Marinette.

“You should be more careful, Princess.” Adrien looked down and winked at Marinette.

Marinette’s face turned bright red. Her mouth kept opening and closing, almost as if she was struggling to get out the words she wanted to say.

It took Adrien another second to realize he called her ‘Princess’ and not ‘Marinette’.

“Oh, man, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out,” Adrien attempted to explain as he lifted her back up to help her stand. “I mean, it’s just a super fitting name. Like you have a balcony and your dad was Weredad protecting you like a princess in a tower. Ya know?”

“Uh, yeah, I think.” Marinette had that adorable thinking face on. “It’s just a little weird to hear _you_ calling me ‘princess’. I’m so used to Chat calling me that.”

Adrien put a little distance between them, so that Marinette had enough room to situate herself.

“I get what you mean. Realizing you and Ladybug were the same person, took me a while to wrap my head around. Well, it’s still taking a while. I mean, you hid it pretty well.” Adrien chuckled a bit. “You made sure no one in all of Paris knew that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug.”

“Yeah! And you!” Marinette exclaimed, gesturing towards him. “Who would’ve guessed that perfect model Adrien Agreste was the dashing, flirtatious Chat Noir?”

“Heh, yeah…”

There were a few seconds of silence that felt like an eternity to Adrien.

How was he supposed to respond to that? ‘Yup! I pretend to be a flirt whenever I’m dressed as a cat boy in a leather suit.’

He wasn’t sure what was worse: lying about his feelings to her or that he runs around Paris as a cat boy. Well, maybe the first was worse because Marinette already knew he ran around Paris as a cat boy.

“Uh-” Um”

“No, you go first!” They said at the same time.

Both of them were completely flustered and clearly talking at the same time wasn’t going to work. Adrien gestured for Marinette to talk first.

“Well-”

“Hey, hey, lovebirds!” Alya greeted from the doorway. “Madame Bustier just wanted me to check and make sure you guys don’t need help finding the art supplies.”

Marinette turned to face Alya, a forced smile on her face. “Yeah, I think they’re in this bin up here.”

“Let me, uh, just grab that and we can head back,” Adrien volunteered.

“Awesome!” “Great…”

Adrien quickly used one of the step ladders and grabbed the bin.

After making sure the bin did have the markers and colored pencils, the trio made their way back to the classroom.

Adrien couldn’t help but wish that he had more time to talk with Marinette, maybe even clear up some things. He just hoped she really didn’t just think of him as a flirt.

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

“So, girl, what’s up with you and Adrien? Don’t think I didn’t notice those looks you were giving him in class today,” Alya questioned, like the eager reporter she was.

Marinette loved that about Alya. She was always so eager to get a new scoop, especially if it had something to do with her best friend, inside and outside of the mask.

Today, Alya had volunteered to help Marinette catch up on the schoolwork she missed, but, of course, as soon as they arrived in Marinette’s room Alya pounced on her with questions about Adrien and her today.

Marinette sighed, moving to lie face down on her chaise longue. “I don’t wanna think about it…”

Alya poked Marinette in the side, causing Marinette to move onto her side so that she was facing Alya.

“It’s not like it’s anything bad, right?”

Marinette groaned, attempting to lie on her face again, but Alya stopped her.

“Okay, so it’s bad, but how bad can it really be? I mean you asked him to get constipation medicine that one time. What could possibly be worse than that?” Alya scooted onto the lounge, allowing her to soothingly rub Marinette’s back.

_Constipation medicine is one thing, but him knowing my identity? That’s 1,000 times worse._

“Identity? What identity?” Alya looked down at Marinette with an inquisitive look in her eyes.

“Did I just say that out loud?” Marinette’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Alya nodded.

Oh no, what was she supposed to do now? _Think, Marinette, think!_

“Oh, um, we, uhhhh, oh!” Marinette exclaimed, sitting up. “We, uh, had been privately chatting on this online platform. We were just strangers there. We just found out each other’s identities the other day, which is kinda why I’ve been out these past couple of days…”

“I’m confused, is this not a good thing? You were actually talking to your long time crush. like, without stuttering or anything! You can totally do that in real life!”

“Alya, you don’t get it. He fell in love with the girl he barely even knew! Not me, Marinette!”

“I still don’t see the problem here. He likes you. You like him. What’s stopping you two from snogging?”

“Alya!” Marinette hit Alya with one of her throw pillows. “I wish it were that simple, honestly. But he thinks that the girl online and I are completely different people.”

“I highly doubt that, Marinette.”

“Alya, I’m like crazy confident there. Like I’ll beat up trolls confident. I don’t stutter, trip, or make a complete fool of myself. Gosh, he’s probably so disappointed that I’m the person he’s been admiring for the past three years.”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng. If you don’t think you are as amazing in real life as you are online, you have another thing coming. And I doubt Adrien, the same man who called you our ‘everyday Ladybug’, thinks you aren’t confident. I doubt he’s disappointed. In fact, I’d bet money that he’s thrilled to find out that you’re the person he’s fallen in love with. And if he doesn’t accept that then I don’t think he’s worth it.“

Marinette smiled a bit. Times like these she really loved having Alya as her best friend. Alya always knew what to say to help.

Unfortunately, her brain wasn’t as amazing.

_Chat has started to move on from Ladybug though._

“Alya, what if,” Marinette paused, gathering her thoughts. “What if Adrien started to move on? And finding out our identities hurt us even more. I mean, I called him a flirt! A flirt, Alya! I still can’t believe I said that.”

Alya was silent for a few minutes. “Do you actually believe that?”

Marinette shook her head instantly. “No, not at all! I don’t think he’s a flirt. Okay, maybe just a bit, but like I don’t think of it as a bad thing. I think it’s kinda adorable.”

Alya smiled. “In that case, I think if it’s meant to be, everything will work out.”

Marinette sighed, falling back into her chaise. “I hope you’re right about that. I’d really hate to lose Adrien over all of this.”

“I hope you don’t lose him either.”

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

The upbeat sounds of Station Nation flowed out of Adrien’s personal Dance Dance Revolution Machine.

His heart just wasn’t in it today, he thought as he absently pressed on the pad in front of him. It was really a pity because he absolutely loved dancing to the Station Nation song on the machine.

Nino, who was next to him, was frantically trying to keep up with the fast movements of the song.

By the time the song finished, Nino was a sweaty mess and Adrien was so in his head that he didn’t even notice his likely terrible score.

“ _Player 2 wins!”_ The game announced, as Adrien made his way to his couch, feeling completely numb inside. Even the loss from his favorite game didn’t phase him as much as it normally would have.

_Is this what it feels like to just die on the inside?_

“Yo, dude, what’s up? You always cream me in that game,” Nino asked, pushing aside Adrien’s legs so he could sit on the couch.

Adrien groaned into the couch as a response.

“Trouble in lady land?”

Adrien shot up like a lightning bolt, a panicked look on his face as he turned to Nino.

“Who told you that!?” he asked as he grabbed onto Nino’s shirt.

“Bro, calm down. No one had to tell me.” Adrien slowly let go of Nino and sat back down on the couch. “I could tell by how you kept glancing over at Marinette in class all day today. Actually, now that I think about it, you’ve been off all week.”

Nino tapped his chin in thought. “Ever since Marinette didn’t show up in school on Wednesday. Yeah...yeah! You said something about talking to her! What happened there?”

“Only terrible, horrible things, Nino. She thinks I’m a flirt!”

Nino fell over on the couch, laughing like a mad man. Adrien frowned, crossing his arms.

“I-I’m, ha, I’m so-sorry!” Nino took a couple deep breaths. “It’s just, pfft, so hard to imagine anyone thinking that YOU! Fancy clothes wearing, dorkasaurus model, Adrien Agreste, is a flirt.”

Nino burst out into another round of laughter as Adrien pouted.

“I can be very suave!”

Nino just continued laughing.

“I’m serious! You just don’t see it because I’m a different person—YOW!” Adrien grabbed onto his arm that had just been bitten by a cheese-eating demon known as Plagg. Despite the throbbing pain pulsing up and down his arm, Adrien realized that Plagg stopped him from practically outing his secret identity to Nino.

“Whoa, you okay there, dude?” Nino leaned over to help, but Adrien leaned a bit out of reach.

“Yeah! I’m fine, just stretched my arm a bit too far. I hurt it a little the other day at fencing. Ya know, sport injuries and all.” Adrien laughed nervously, reaching his other arm around to scratch his neck.

“Okay…” Nino sounded unconvinced, but thankfully he dropped it. “So what was that about being a different person? Are you like some catfisher or something? Did you woo Marinette and now she hates you?”

“No! Yes. I dunno…” Adrien sighed, leaning back against the couch.

He could faintly feel Plagg licking at the spot where he bit Adrien. It was something he did whenever Adrien was hurt and it always made his injuries heal faster. Every time Adrien asked Plagg about it, the kwami would deny everything. It was honestly so precious and adorable how Plagg was so cat-like.

“So you did catfish Marinette?” Nino asked, raising his eyebrow.

“No, I didn’t! I just, uhhhhh, really got to know her on...uhhh...Club Penguin!”

“Club Penguin?”

Adrien nodded, frantically. “Yeah, yeah. We were in a chat room together and just chatted a ton. We didn’t know who each other were, it was just a nice casual chatting. I only recently found out it was her.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you flirted with some rando stranger online, who could’ve been some 50-year-old dude?”

“When you put it like that...yeeeeeeeeessss. But I will say her personality online was so amazing and wonderful. She stands up to vil-trolls and is extremely kind to everyone. Like there was nothing short of amazing when she was, uh, on her Club Penguin account. I really want things to work out between us, but I’m scared that I might’ve screwed up.”

“I’m sure things will work out bro. Even if she thinks you’re just a dude who randomly flirts with people online.” Nino paused as if realizing the ridiculousness of what he just said. “We have _got_ to work on your social skills.”

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

“Marinette! There’s someone here to see you!” her mother called from the living room.

Marinette looked towards Tikki confused. She hadn’t been expecting anyone since Alya had to cancel their movie night because ‘something came up tonight’. It was a bit unexpected too since Marinette had already dressed up in her Chat Noir themed pajamas. She tried to trick herself into believing that she was just wearing the pajamas because they were her comfiest, but she knew better.

“Uh, send them up, Maman!”

Marinette was surprised to see Nino poke his head through her trapdoor.

“Oh, hey Nino!”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“Oh, hey Alya!” Adrien greeted as he walked into her apartment. He had been a little surprised to get Alya’s message to come over, but he figured it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Alya was making sandwiches in the apartment’s kitchen.

“Hey, Adrien! Gimme a sec, I’ll be done with this soon,” Alya gestured towards the couch in her living room.

“So what did you want—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—to talk about?” Marinette asked, watching as Nino sat down on her lounge.

Nino sighed as if wondering where to begin.

“I know you and Adrien have been talking in a Club Penguin—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—an online chat room. And I know you guys just found out that you were talking to each other.” Alya moved to sit down with the sandwiches.

Adrien grabbed one from the plate, but instead of eating it he just stared at the whole wheat bread filled with peanut butter and jelly.

“So you talked to Nino—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—Alya. Great, what other secrets has she told you? That I stole Adrien’s phone once?” Marinette leaned back as far as she possibly could in her desk chair, which wasn’t much.

Nino blinked. “You stole Adrien’s phone?”

“Uhh...so what was that about a Club Penguin chat room?” she asked, hoping Nino would drop the phone thing.

“We-we’re going to have to talk about that phone thing later.” Nino paused, refocusing on the topic at hand. “Do you like Adrien—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—Marinette?” Alya stared at him as she waited for his answer.

“No.” Adrien paused dramatically. “I love her.”

Alya smiled. “Well, I’ll have you know she—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—loves you too.”

Nino sat back in his chair as he watched Marinette get up from her chair and start pacing around the room.

“No, that can’t...even after all of the things—”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“—she said?” Adrien asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“She does and she regrets what she said. Like, a lot.”

“So, she...she actually loves me?” His previously broken heart was already mending itself at the prospect that Marinette actually loved him back. His Lady truly loved him.

Adrien abruptly stood up. “I need to go find her.”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

Marinette couldn’t believe her ears. Adrien Agreste loved her. He actually loved her because of who she is, not who she pretended to be.

“Nino, do you know where he is?” Marinette asked. For the first time in three days, she could feel hope coursing through her veins.

Nino smiled proudly. “Yeah, he’s at Alya’s.”

“Thanks, Nino!” She yelled, already halfway down her ladder, running as fast as she could without running into anyone.

Marinette was determined to tell the boy she loved exactly how she felt, without anyone interrupting them.

She barely even registered the loud clap of thunder followed by the sky opening up and drenching her in rain. She was a girl on a mission and nothing was going to stop her.

Alya’s apartment was normally a 15-minute walk, but today it took her 5 minutes. She was thankful her years as Ladybug gave her such stamina that she wasn’t breathless.

By the time she arrived, her pajamas were completely soaked.

“Did you forget something, Sunshine?”Alya asked, when she opened the door for Marinette. “Oh! Marinette, what are you doing here?”

“Where’s Adrien?”

ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ

“Where’s Marinette?” Adrien asked Nino as he arrived at the Dupain-Cheng Bakery.

Adrien had just caught Nino as he had been exiting the bakery.

“Uh, she was just headed to Alya’s. She was actually looking for you. Wanted to say something.” Nino winked.

“Dang it! Okay, thanks bud!”

With that, Adrien took off back in the direction of Alya’s apartment. Hopefully, this time he wouldn’t miss Marinette.

The rain was really starting to get in his way and he considered transforming into Chat Noir but that might’ve just made him feel more uncomfortable considering his increased cat-like instincts when transformed.

He would just have to deal with his designer clothes being ruined. But that was just a small price to pay for love.

ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ☂ヽ｀、ヽ｀、ヽ

On her way back to the bakery, Marinette was immensely slowed down as the rain grew more torrential.

She would’ve transformed, but it was possible she could pass Adrien and not realize it, especially now that the rain was hindering her eyesight.

She was crossing Pont Alexandre III to get to the other side of the Seine, which was the side the bakery was on, when she bumped into someone.

“I’m so sor-Adrien!”

The rain slowed down a bit, allowing her to see Adrien’s surprise and—was that adoration?— in his eyes.

“Marinette!” Adrien replied breathlessly.

“I uhh—” “So—”

Marinette couldn’t help but let out a small giggle.

“We always seem to get this wrong.”

“Yeah, heh, that’s cause I’m always struggling to talk around the girl I love.” Adrien looked at Marinette with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Despite the running all around Paris, Adrien’s words were the thing that stole her breath. Sure, Nino had told her that Adrien loved her, but it was a completely different experience actually hearing that coming from Adrien’s mouth.

“Really?”

Adrien nodded. “Yes, I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, with my entire being.”

Marinette reached up to crash her lips onto Adrien’s.

The kiss was as magical as if it was from a movie. Their lips moved together perfectly in sync with each other. Adrien’s lips tasted of passionfruit, her favorite.

Gosh, she loved this boy so much.

She felt as he caressed her face, deepening the kiss.

They, unfortunately, had to break for air at some point, which she really hated. His lips were so soft and warm that she just wanted to be wrapped in them.

“So does this mean you love me back?” Adrien had that mischievous look in his eyes. Just like her kitty.

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Yes, I love you, Adrien Agreste.”


End file.
